6 posts categorized "Doug Logan"

May 23, 2011

The head of the search committee looking for a new chief executive for USA Track & Field said Monday that USATF President and board chairman Stephanie Hightower is definitely in the running to get the job.

``It is very possible she could become the CEO,'' Steve Miller, a former Nike executive who is CEO of the Andre Agassi Foundation, told me by telephone.

Miller said such a choice would not be affected the firestorm that followed Stephanie Streeter's becoming interim U.S. Olympic Committee chief executive after its board, of which Streeter was a member, fired the sitting CEO.

``I think each situation is different,'' said Miller, a USATF board member.

The difficulty in finding a new CEO has apparently led the board to consider whether the best solution might be Hightower.

Hightower was not available for comment.

U.S. Olympic Commitee chief Scott Blackmun told me last fall the USOC would be critical of any CEO candidature from a board member. The USOC had no comment Monday on the news that Hightower was getting serious consideration for the job.

Naming a board member runs counter to new policies the USOC has asked the individual sports federations to follow. One is to achieve complete transition of management from volunteers like the board to paid staff. Another calls for security in the role of CEO.

There is a feeling the entire interview process may have been flawed because all potential candidates are aware of Hightower's interest in the job and may fear she would interfere with the CEO's ability to run the federation -- thereby compromising the CEO's security.

``This has been a lot more protracted than I imagined,'' Miller said. ``We can't afford to fail, and in our desire to get this right, we have gone around and around.

``There have been several times I thought we were there, and we weren't. It has been frustrating.''

The selection committee was ready to pick University Oregon coach Vin Lananna -- the seemingly perfect choice -- until Lananna decided to stay at Oregon.

``Vin was interviewed, and we thought he might have been it, but he changed his mind,'' Miller said.

Miller said he still hoped to present a candidate to the USATF board for its meeting during the U.S. Championships June 23-26 in Eugene, Ore.

Miller outlined three other possible scenarios if the search committee and / or the board could not agree on a candidate:

*Keep the status quo through the 2012 London Olympics. That would leave Mike McNees, the chief operating officer, as interim CEO and the highest-ranking staff member.

*Name Hightower as interim CEO.

*Have USATF temporarily become a board-run organization without a CEO. ``We could have an internal committee mentor members of the current leadership to assume the CEO's duties,'' Miller said.

Miller insisted it was more important to make the right choice than to worry about taking more time.

``We (USATF) are not in a disaster mode,'' he said.

*In a related development, Reuters first reported Friday that USATF and Logan have reached a settlement on his wrongful termination suit. No terms were mentioned.

Logan, who had been CEO two years and had two years left on his contract, was been seeking more than $1 million in damages. Logan said in his lawsuit he had turned down an offer of $500,000. His annual base salary was $350,000.

September 24, 2010

COLORADO SPRINGS -- My colleague Eddie Pells of the Associated Press has a terrific story today with more details of the contract payoff USA Track & Field might have to make as a result of firing Doug Logan.

One of the things the story reveals is how USATF gave Logan a new contract June 27 and a letter that started the termination process July 6.

It's even wackier than that: sources have told me that some members of the USATF board had a meeting in Des Moinesto start dumping Loganwithin hours the same day it agreed to the new contract, which boosted Logan's base salary by $140,000 a year while reducing his incentives.

No matter what one thinks of Logan, who lately has become more and more vitriolic in describing the situation, the way he was dumped serves to underline the way an old maxim perfectly describes the USATF board in its handling of the matter:

The only amateurs left in the Olympic movement are the people running it.

And don't think the U.S. Olympic Committee isn't paying attention. When I asked USOC chief executive Scott Blackmun Friday if the USOC might intervene should USATF board chair Stephanie Hightower be looking to replace Logan, creating an unconscionable conflict of interest that would replicate what happened at the USOC a year earlier, this was Blackmun's answer:

September 16, 2010

There is no doubt increasing friction between USA Track & Field board chair and president Stephanie Hightower and chief executive Doug Logan played a critical role in leading the 15-member board to its decision last weekend to dump Logan with three years left on his contract.

Hightower told Reuters' Gene Cherry Monday, the day of the firing announcement, that she had abstained in the 2008 board vote that chose Logan as the new CEO ``because I did not have enough information, and I did not think the process was transparent enough.''

It certainly appears that Hightower had changed her mind by the middle of 2009, when she and Logan sat down for an interview I came upon while fishing for financial information in the 2008 USATF annual report.

I have excerpted the sections of that interview that cover the working relationship between them. I have underlined a few salient points.

It was a love fest.

Barely a year later, the relationship had fallen apart.

Either that, or both have very long noses.

The interview:

Q: What have you learned from each other since you’ve been working together?

HIGHTOWER: I learn from Doug every day. He brings a wealth of professionalism and expertise from his eclectic years in the entertainment business and sports industry, which gives me an opportunity to really learn what we can be as a sport and how we can re-invent ourselves. What I like about his management style is that while he may make a decision today, based upon information that he is aware of, that he has no problem with changing that decision the next day to accommodate new information. It has nothing to do with being right or wrong. It has to do with the fact that he is open to listening to people and re-assessing decisions. He’s comfortable in his ability to manage this organization, knowing that there are going to be possibly some mishaps. He’s willing to accept that and keep moving forward.

LOGAN: If I can talk about the qualities I found in Stephanie, first of all, I think she has some of the most astute political skills that I have run across. That’s just in her, and her ability to mount constituencies behind ideas is a skill that you rarely find. You rarely find someone who has got them honed to that degree.

Stephanie has leadership skills that in other places and in other times, and in other situations, could lead troops to war, could lead a corporate boardroom. It’s a remarkable set of leadership skills that I have always gravitated to, because I may or may not have the exact same skills. She is far more politic than I am, but I think we share the ability of basic leadership, which is to take an idea, take a concept, and mobilize people into action behind those ideas. We are at a point in time where true leadership in this organization requires the leaders to have to say no. She has the courage to say no.

Q: When it became clear that the two of you would be the people to lead the organization, some observers saw two strong personalities that would clash with one another. Did you have any concerns?

HIGHTOWER: Absolutely, but I gained a level of respect for Doug the night of the election for the USATF presidency. After the election that night, he made it a point to find out where my celebratory party was being held, and he showed up there, just to say congratulations. That said to me that I had a partner I was going to be able to work with. There wasn’t any hesitation on his part. He walked into that room with a level of competence that this is something he, as the CEO, should be doing, and I think he gained a lot of respect from other people that night. That’s when I knew he wasn’t afraid of whatever people were going to perceive as a collision – he’s not afraid of it. That’s a level of courage we haven’t had. It’s going to take courage for us to move this organization to the next level.

LOGAN: I knew that Stephanie probably had some questions about me when I was first hired. We mildly locked horns once or twice. I think there was a period when we were taking the measure of one another: I wonder how tough he is, I wonder how tough she is. But it was sport.

HIGHTOWER: It was competitiveness. He was showing me his competitiveness. I think I’ve had, in relationships with people I work with, folks view me as being too assertive or too competitive. Again, you have him, he can spar and there wasn’t a hesitation. That’s what I enjoy about working with Doug.

LOGAN: It was serious, but it wasn’t serious. That’s why I made the statement at the end of my State of the Sport speech, that this organization wasn’t going to get any shrinking violets this year. It’s interesting. People don’t have a sense. When two strong, assertive people to collaborate on a project, people naturally presume they are going to be in conflict. That’s not necessarily the case, because first and foremost, if you get an agreement that the project is more important than either one of us, that the health of the organization is paramount, and that we are just pawns in this fight, sometimes you can get a force multiplier out of it. I think that’s what came out of this and came out of it very quickly. We both agreed that there was a better day ahead, this was a sport in need of fixing, that we weren’t anywhere close to reaching our potential. I was able to reach that conclusion coming from the outside and looking at it. Stephanie had lived it, and lived it from the inside. We both reached the same conclusion. So it was relatively easy for both of us to. . . we subjugated ourselves to that larger cause, and it’s been a hell of a ride.

Q: You govern and oversee two different, yet codependent parts of the organization. Doug oversees the professional and business sides, while Stephanie oversees our Board of Directors and volunteers. How can and should those volunteers, professionals and board members work together in the future, and how as leaders can you make that happen?

HIGHTOWER: That’s a part of this whole change and this paradigm of change that is needed and is going to be difficult. We need to be strategic about finding the best ways for our volunteers to be intimately involved. They bring subject-matter expertise that we don’t have internally in our professional staff. Yet at the same time, there is a level of accountability that needs to be put into place. At the end of the day, we are running a business, and that means accountability. We have outcomes that we have to be responsible for, to corporations and to the USOC. The buck is going to stop with Doug. The independent board has to set the policy and the strategic vision, along with the CEO, for what we need to do to be successful. Doug has the responsibility, with inclusion of the volunteers, to figure out how to make that vision a reality. It’s a delicate balance that hasn’t been done before in this organization. We are creating a new model. We’re up for the challenge.

LOGAN: Stephanie and I talk every day. In our deliberations, one would presume there is an advocate for the management, and there is an advocate for the membership, and each one takes that side, and there are conclusions that get reached. But in reality, those roles are interchangeable. We mesh so well because we both truly understand the other’s role. She understands what I’m all about.

We are trying to run a professional sport in a membership-based organization. There are those would say that’s an oxymoron. It’s a difficult, difficult challenge, and you really cannot get it too much out of kilter. When I arrived in this job and we started our collaboration in December, it tilted too much in one direction and needed to be righted. We’re trying to strike that balance. I think we’re comfortable in saying we think we found that balance. Now it’s a matter of getting the buy-in from various constituencies to understand that this is the correct balance to position this sport for the glory it deserves.

HIGHTOWER:The power and beauty of this partnership is that when people talk to either one of us, they are hearing a consistent message. There might be a little variation, but it’s the same basic message. That’s something a lot of people didn’t count on.

September 13, 2010

USA Track & Field's 15-member board of directors announced Monday it was making what looks like a costly decision to dump chief executive Doug Logan after barely two years on the job.

How costly? It could be nearly $2 million.

``We were going into this with our
eyes wide open,'' USATF board vice president Jack Wickens told me by
telephone Monday afternoon. ``At the end of the day, we think the
opportunities are greater than the potential costs of a settlement.''

As I wrote in a blog last week,
it seems foolhardy to dismiss Logan after just two years on the job -- and
less than two years before the 2012 Olympics -- unless he were fired for
cause.

And,
unless he has been fired for cause, USATF will have to give Logan a
substantial payoff, something in the vicinity of $1 million. (He is
owed almost double that amount for the remaining piece of a contract
that expires in December, 2013). That would be ironic, since sources
have told me a reason the USATF board was unhappy with Logan owed to
what it felt was his inability to bring in new sponsors.

And if you can fire the guy for cause, with no payout, why negotiate a settlement?

Further irony: Last week, the international track federation named Logan to one of its committees.

``Discussions related to the terms of my separation are ongoing, and I can't comment further on them at this point,'' Logan said via telephone Monday.

``I have spent 26 months investing my soul in this sport and this federation. Some remarkable transformation has taken place in that time. I am extremely proud of what the staff and I have been able to accomplish.``

``I have my head held high. I will pay no attention to anyone who wants to denigrate my record.''

You can bet the U.S. Olympic
Committee isn't happy with this move, even if it unlikely to try to
reverse the decision. The USOC's relationship with USA Track & Field
had gotten increasingly testy and frayed for a few years before Logan
took over.

In
2007, the USOC ratcheted up pressure on USATF to revise its governance
structure so it would fall in line with a revised USOC governance model
created after Congressional pressure.

``The
board of directors of USA Track & Field clearly has the authority
to undertake the hiring and firing of its CEO,'' USOC chief executive
Scott Blackmun said Monday. ``We can't second-guess.

``That
being said, there has been a fair amount of recent turnover in the CEOs
of our federations, with track, fencing and triathlon changing their
CEOs. The amount of turnover is going to make it a more difficult task
to find and hire qualified CEOs, because it looks like a risky job.''

Blackmun said he first learned about the decision to fire Logan by reading my blog. USATF's failure to give him a heads-up before the announcement can't be a good thing for USOC - USATF relations.

It
seems as if you can file this under the inmates running the asylum,
since the whole idea of the governance revisions -- at both USOC and
USATF levels -- was to minimize the amount of influence the volunteer
boards of both organizations have on the work of the salaried staff.

Here is the USATF statement:

USATF Board to hire new CEO

INDIANAPOLIS – The USA Track & Field Board of Directors has voted to pursue new leadership in its CEO position, bringing to a close the tenure of Doug Logan, who had been CEO of the federation since July 2008.

After a meeting over the weekend in Las Vegas, the Board voted to pursue leadership change.
“We sincerely thank Doug for his efforts and his passionate focus on our sport,” said USATF President and Chair Stephanie Hightower. “After undertaking a performance evaluation over the course of the past few months, our Board has decided it is in our best interests to engage different leadership to move the sport forward.”

In accordance with USATF bylaws, Chief Operating Officer Mike McNees will assume day-to-day leadership of USATF as the Board begins its search for a new CEO.

“The Board is committed to a thorough, thoughtful CEO search process,” Hightower said. “Although our goal is to complete the search process quickly, we will not compromise the quality of the search and candidate evaluation. The Board is fully supportive of the USATF staff, and we know they will do a tremendous job as we enter this new phase for the organization.”

Hightower stressed that the USATF Board will continue to vigorously pursue its strategic plan, developed in July 2009 and approved by USATF membership last December. “We simply need to accelerate our realization of this vision and plan,” she said.

+++++++++++++

Hightower, a 1980 Olympian and former hurdles world record-holder, said she wasn't at liberty to give detailed reasons for why the board ousted Logan.

``Out of respect for Doug and his leadership, we can't talk about those things,'' she said.

I asked Hightower whether the cost of a settlement during tough economic times factored into the decision.

``The board went through a very thoughtful process,'' Hightower answered. ``We understand the ramifications for whatever actions we were going to take and what could be in store for us.''

Board member Deena Kastor, 2004 Olympic bronze medalist and U.S. women's record-holder in the marathon, said Monday that Logan's dismissal owed to his failure to follow up and implement significant parts of the strategic plan the USATF board adopted in July, 2009. She declined to specify particulars for legal reasons.

``It came down to reviewing his performance and not finding great results in the past 2 1/2 years and (his) not being able to fix things brought up in our evaluation of him,'' Kastor said.

The board review began about three months ago. Logan had presented written responses to questions about specific areas of his performance and addressed the board at a meeting over the weekend in Las Vegas.

``Any time you have a strong leadership, you will have a mixed bag of people who love and hate the leader,'' Kastor said. ``But this decision was based solely on a performance evaluation each member of the board filled out.''

According to Wickens, the decision was made by voting on a motion in executive session. He said every board member participated with only one, Bob Hersh (no relation to me), doing it via telephone.

Hightower said there was no rush to have a new CEO in place. The board will meet in October to discuss the succession plan.

``We have a great person who has stepped up in the interim role, Mike McNees,'' she said. ``We are very confident Mike has the level of leadership skills to lead us through this period. We don't have a headless horse running around here.''

Could there still be an interim CEO at the 2012 Olympics?

``I don't think anyone has any intention of it going that long,'' Hightower said. ``I don't think that's an option.''

September 08, 2010

1. I hope I'm wrong, but my gut feeling is 2010 Olympic figure skating singles champions Kim Yuna of South Korea and Evan Lysacek of the United States are done with competitive skating.

2. Both Kim, 20, and Lysacek, 25, always will be remembered for having given a career-defining performance to win the gold medal. Not a bad way to go out, if that's what either decides.

3. Helene Elliott's column about Michelle Kwan in Wednesday's Los Angeles Times reinforced my conviction that while Kwan never won an Olympic gold medal, she rapidly is becoming one of the greatest Olympians ever -- a person of so many more dimensions than she showed us in her extraordinary skating career.

4. The U.S. Olympic Committee should step in if USA Track & Field's board decides to dump CEO Doug Logan after this weekend's meeting in Las Vegas. Logan deserves to get through at least the 2012 Olympics. Blaming him for a poor showing in Beijing two years ago is ridiculous. The guy was on the job about 12 minutes before the 2008 Summer Games.

5. Ice Wars: Kim Yuna (Pyeongchang) vs. Katarina Witt (Munich). The two Olympic champions are big names on their country's bid team rosters in the effort to bring home the 2018 Winter Games. The winner of the International Olympic Committee's vote next year? Kim and South Korea.

6. U.S. sprinter Tyson Gay has laid down some serious heat since his disappointing, injury-ridled 2008 Olympic season. He had the No. 2-3-4 fastest 100-meter times of 2009 (behind you-know-who from Jamaica). This season, Gay ended Usain Bolt's 2-year win streak, went undefeated and had the No. 1 and No. 3 times in the world. I'm picking Gay -- barring another injury to upset Bolt for the 2011 world title.

7. The Feds may be involved this time, but somehow, some way, Lance Armstrong will skate with his reputation intact from the latest investigation into his alleged use of performance-enhancing drugs -- spurred by Floyd Landis' claims he knew Armstrong was on the juice.

8. Are the first Youth Olympic Games over yet?

9. The next realistic chance for a Summer OIympics in the United States is 2028. But why do I keep thinking there will be an opportunity for a U.S. bidder in 2020 if Pyeongchang gives Asia an Olympics in 2018, and Paris decides to go after the 2024 Summer Games to celebrate the centenary of its last time as Olympic host?

10. Chicago should bid for the 2018 World Basketball Championships. The next worlds, in 2014, were awarded to Spain at a meeting last year in. . .Chicago.

July 22, 2008

The new boss of USA Track & Field didn't wait long before jumping in feet first on a critical issue for his sport: doping.

Speaking to the press last week, Doug Logan called doping a "horrible, horrible plague'' and talked about the need for a cultural shift in people's attitudes toward cheating as a major factor in helping rid all sports of that plague.

So it was no surprise that Logan, who began his new job Monday, felt some outrage about Marion Jones' plea for a Presidential pardon to shorten her six-month jail sentence for lying to federal investigators.

And if Logan's reaction -- asking President Bush in an open letter to deny that pardon -- smacks a little of grandstanding, so be it. Better that than letting Jones off easier, because she never has confessed to the extent of her doping.

As I wrote last January 10, when the judge was about to determine Jones' sentence, I would have been lenient under three conditions:

That Jones tell the entire truth about her use of performance-enhancing drugs.

That a percentage of any future income is garnished until she can return some of the $700,000 the international track federation claims was ill-gotten gain.

That she do a substantial amount of community service.

But I also wrote this:

In asking for leniency, Jones' lawyers said, "She has lost her livelihood. She has been ruined financially. She has lost her reputation.''

And why shouldn't she have lost all those things, having been exposed as a duplicitous fraud and something of a pathological liar?

That ugly picture of who Marion Jones really was -– not the track superstar who was the first athlete on the cover of Vogue -– will haunt her future. But it serves no useful purpose to put Jones in jail, provided she finally faces her past.

She has not faced her past. The judge gave her six months and a big chunk of community service.

Now she wants out early. Doug Logan doesn't want that to happen, and he has asked others to take a stand in the preamble to the letter USATF released Tuesday. Form your own opinion.

USA Track & Field has written President Bush to express our concern at Marion Jones' application for pardon or commutation of her conviction for making false statements to federal investigators. Make your own voice heard and join USATF in writing to President Bush. For more information on how to write the White House, click here.

Below is the text of USATF's letter.

Dear President Bush,

They say you can't always believe what you read in the papers. So, when I read that Marion Jones has applied to you for a pardon or commutation of her federal conviction for making false statements to investigators, I couldn't believe it. She lied to federal agents. She took steroids. She made false statements in a bank fraud investigation - not necessarily in that order. She admitted it. And now she apparently wants to be let off.

As the new CEO of USA Track & Field, I have a moral and practical duty to make the case against her request.

With her cheating and lying, Marion Jones did everything she could to violate the principles of track and field and Olympic competition. When she came under scrutiny for doping, she taunted any who doubted her purity, talent and work ethic. Just as she had succeeded in duping us with her performances, she duped many people into giving her the benefit of the doubt.

She pointed her finger at us, and got away with it until federal investigators teamed up with USADA and finally did her in. It was a sad thing to watch, the most glorious female athlete of the 20th century in tears on courthouse steps.

Our country has long turned a blind eye to the misdeeds of our heroes. If you have athletic talent or money or fame, the law is applied much differently than if you are slow or poor or an average American trying to get by. At the same time, all sports have for far too long given the benefit of the doubt to its heroes who seem too good to be true, even when common sense indicates they are not.

To reduce Ms. Jones' sentence or pardon her would send a horrible message to young people who idolized her, reinforcing the notion that you can cheat and be entitled to get away with it. A pardon would also send the wrong message to the international community. Few things are more globally respected than the Olympic Games, and to pardon one of the biggest frauds perpetuated on the Olympic movement would be nothing less than thumbing our collective noses at the world.

In my new job as CEO of USA Track & Field, I must right the ship that Ms. Jones and other athletes nearly ran aground. I implore you, Mr. President: Please don't take the wind out of our sails.

About the author

Philip Hersh grew up in Boston but has lived in Evanston since 1977. He has worked at the Tribune since 1984 and has focused on international sports and the Olympics since 1987. In 2011, the German sports publication, SportIntern, named Hersh among the most influential people in world sports, the 11th time he has earned that annual recognition. He was graduated from Yale University with a B.A. in French and a specialization in early 19th Century French literature. Prior to joining the Tribune, Hersh worked for the Gloucester, Mass., Daily Times, the Baltimore Evening Sun, the Chicago Daily News and the Chicago Sun-Times.